Blogger’s Delight – a disclaimer (of sorts).

This is an email I received back in May (is it acceptable netiquette to quote emails?) after I responded to an enigmatic comment here on the blog:

Hi Mark,

As a PR agency we look after Jersey Tourism and this year we’re working on an exciting new launch across the Channel Islands named the ‘Channel Island Way’.

We’re keen to promote Jersey’s walking opportunities, with a focus on the Channel Island Way launch, through some great online blogs (just like yours!)…which is also picture led.

We would therefore like to invite you out to the island to do a spot of walking and get a flavour for what the CIW can offer.

We can do flights, accommodation and car hire to suit.

Let me know if you think this might potentially sound like a nice idea!

A nice idea? It sounds like all of my Christmases rolled into one. It sounds like absolute heaven! But hang on….is it an actual invite or is it the very gentlest of advertising?

As emails went back and forth and it became clear that this was a genuine expenses paid opportunity I couldn’t really believe my luck. In fact until I was on the plane and Jersey bound I kept expecting a communiqué beginning: “We’re sorry, we’ve realised our mistake….”

So was it absolute heaven? Well hopefully you will read the next few posts and find out. (But if you’re the kind of person who skips to the last page of a book to find out how it finishes before deciding whether to read it or not* – Yes!)

Clearly the very highest standards of integrity and objectivity are maintained here chez BTB and my opinions of Jersey and the Channel Island Way have in no way been swayed by the fine dining, or the chauffer-driven limo**, or the erudite and witty guide who accompanied us, the friendly people we*** met everywhere, or the free flights, or the swish hotel…

Oh well….maybe these things may have coloured my experience just a teensy, tiny smidgen. But definitely no more than that.****

***We? Us? I hear you ask. Yes – I wasn’t the only blogger to benefit from this windfall, Alan Sloman was also there, and very good company he turned out to be. (Please open this link in several tabs I’d like Alan to retain the impression that this blog has legions of fans) You can find his account of our trip, and his informative posts about the Channel Isles and the Channel Island Way, and some nuggets of information about John Nettles, his stuntman and his bikes (John Nettles’ bikes that is, not the stuntman’s who wasn’t really John Nettles’ stuntman anyway, which you’ll be pleased to know if you are the sort of person who skips to the last page of a book to….etc etc)…..Anyway, you can find all of that and more over at Alan’s excellent campaigning blog (open this one too – but only when you’ve finished here….no wait! come back!)

****If you are from a PR company with a walk or an island or a hotel etc etc etc to promote then you should know that I AM CHEAP! I’M EASILY SWAYED! I CAN BE BOUGHT! Oh and one other thing – this blog really does have LEGIONS OF FANS and the things I said before which may have given the impression that this was not the case were merely for comic effect. I WAS JOKING! Honest.

And I thought the whole smug hat thing was a private joke! Whilst we were away Arthur regularly introduced Alan and I as being either journalists or writers and subsequently I’ve been finding that all of my hats are a bit on the tight side!

I think ‘Lucky Sod’ just about covers it!
Isle of Mann, Isle of Wight , Isle of Sheppey, Isle Goanywhere frankly if I’m going to be as well looked after as I was in Jersey.
If there’s not a war on like…..or plague, or pestilence, I don’t do them either. I have standards you know.
You’re first in my stand-in list Sheila – I’ll let you know when the offers come flooding in!